Toast Lays Off Half Its Workforce

Toast has slashed its workforce, laying off and furloughing about half its employees, according to a blog post from Toast CEO Chris Comparato.

CNBC estimates 1300 employees were cut.

With Americans’ sheltering in place and dining rooms closed, restaurant revenue plummeted by as much as 80% in March "…We took every step we could to protect the health of our company. We froze hiring, pulled back offers, and halted merit increases,"stated Comparato. "As a leadership team, we will reduce our pay across the board. But with limited visibility into how quickly the industry may recover, and facing slower than anticipated growth, we now find ourselves in the unenviable position of reducing our headcount."  

Toast also built and launched Rally for Restaurants  to raise awareness for the needs of the restaurant industry and generate revenue for the community through online ordering and gift card sales. 

To help restaurants, Toast is also offering one month credit of software fees for all Toast customers and, Toast customer or not, three months of free access to online ordering, Toast TakeOut, gift cards, and marketing tools.